Blockchain Papers

Sérgio Figueiredo, Paulo Silva, Alfonso Iacovazzi, Vitalina Holubenko · 11 authors

No abstract is available for this record.

Morsy Nour, José Pablo Chaves Ávila, Álvaro Sánchez Miralles

Blockchain technology applications in the electricity sector are getting considerable attention from both academia and industry. It is expected that blockchain will play an important role in the transition to the smart grid. The blockchain applications in the electricity sector can be classified to optimizing existing processes like metering and billing or grid management and using blockchain for emerging applications such as creating new platforms for value exchange like peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading. This paper briefly introduces the fundamentals of blockchain technology, such as different types of blockchain networks and consensus mechanisms, in addition to introducing a few blockchain platforms that are widely used in current studies, projects, and startups or may have future potential in the electricity sector applications. The contribution of this paper is to provide a review of potential applications of blockchain in many electricity sector use cases, and they are categorized into eight categories such as P2P energy trading, wholesale markets, retail markets, metering and billing, trading of renewable energy certificates (RECs) and carbon credits, electric mobility, enhancement of power system cyber security, investments in renewable energy sources (RESs), and power system operation and management. Moreover, examples of research studies, pilot projects, industrial projects, startups, or companies investigating the blockchain capabilities at each potential application are introduced. Furthermore, the studies presented in each use case are compared to clarify and highlight the blockchain functions and involved actors. Finally, the paper discusses the challenges that blockchain technology is facing that obstruct large-scale adoption in different sectors and in the electricity sector specifically and potential solutions to these challenges that are being developed.

Sergio Cantillo-Luna, Ricardo Moreno‐Chuquen, Harold R. Chamorro, Vijay K. Sood · 6 authors

Power grids all over the world are transitioning towards a decentralized structure. Under such a transition, blockchain technology is emerging as a potential solution for technical, deployment and decentralization issues, given its security, integrity, decentralized nature and required infrastructure. Moreover, blockchain technology offers excellent features like non-repudiation and immutability which makes it a promising application for DER integration and management on reliability factors. In this paper, a comprehensive review of blockchain applications for DER management and integration is presented. First, a blockchain-based literature review of research activities in the DER integration area and related tasks including entrepreneurial efforts is carried out. Next, the different opportunities and challenges of DER integration and management in power grids, i.e., centralization, regulatory support, development costs are discussed. Finally, some key research challenges and opportunities of including blockchain technology to DER integration and management issues are presented.

Rohit Chandra, K. R. Krishnanand, Sanjib Kumar Panda

No abstract is available for this record.

Mohammad Kamrul Hasan, Ali Alkhalifah, Shayla Islam, Nissrein Babiker Mohammed Babiker · 7 authors

The smart grid idea was implemented as a modern interpretation of the traditional power grid to find out the most efficient way to combine renewable energy and storage technologies. Throughout this way, big data and the Internet always provide a revolutionary solution for ensuring that electrical energy linked intelligent grid, also known as the energy Internet. The blockchain has some significant features, making it an applicable technology for smart grid standards to solve the security issues and trust challenges. This study will present a rigorous review of blockchain implementations with the cyber security perception and energy data protections in smart grids. As a result, we describe the major security issues of smart grid scenarios that big data and blockchain can solve. Then, we identify a variety of recent blockchain‐based research works published in various literature and discuss security concerns on smart grid systems. We also discuss numerous similar practical designs, experiments, and items that have recently been developed. Finally, we go through some of the most important research problems and possible directions for using blockchain to address smart grid security concerns.

Francesco Buccafurri, Gianluca Lax, Lorenzo Musarella, Antonia Russo

The need for a flexible, dynamic, and decentralized energy market has rapidly grown in recent years. As a matter of fact, Industry 4.0 and Smart Grids are pursuing a path of automation of operations to insure all the steps among consumers and producers are getting closer. This leads towards solutions that exploit the paradigm of public blockchain, which represents the best platform to design flat and liquid markets for which providing trust and accountability to mutual interactions becomes crucial. On the other hand, one of the risks arising in this situation is that personal information is exposed to the network, with intolerable threats to privacy. In this paper, we propose a solution for energy trading, based on the blockchain Ethereum and Smart Contracts.The solution aims to be a concrete proposal to satisfy the needs of energy trading in smart grids, including the important feature that no information about the identity of the peers of the network is disclosed in advance.

Behkish Nassirzadeh, Huaiying Sun, Sebastian Bănescu, Vijay Ganesh

In recent years we have witnessed a dramatic increase in the adoption and application of smart contracts in a variety of contexts such as decentralized finance, supply chain management, and identity management. However, a critical stumbling block to the further adoption of smart contracts is their security. A particularly widespread class of security vulnerabilities that afflicts Ethereum smart contracts is the gas limit denial of service(DoS) on a contract via unbounded operations. These vulnerabilities result in a failed transaction with an out-of-gas error and are often present in contracts containing loops whose bounds are affected by end-user input. Note that such vulnerabilities differ from gas limit DoS on the network via block stuffing. Therefore, we present Gas Gauge, a tool aimed at detecting Out-of-Gas DoS vulnerabilities in Ethereum smart contracts. Gas Gauge consists of three major components: the Detection, Identification, and Correction Phases. The Detection Phase consists of an accurate static analysis approach that finds and summarizes all the loops in a smart contract. The Identification Phase uses a white-box fuzzing approach to generate a set of inputs that causes the contract to run out of gas. The Correction Phase uses static analysis and run-time verification to predict the maximum loop bounds consistent with allowable gas usage and suggest appropriate repairs to the user of the tool. Each part of the tool can be used separately for different purposes or all together to detect, identify and help repair the contracts vulnerable to Out-of-Gas DoS vulnerabilities. Gas Gauge was tested on 1,000 real-world solidity smart contracts deployed on the Ethereum Mainnet. The results were compared to seven state-of-the-art static and symbolic tools, and it was empirically demonstrated that Gas Gauge is far more effective than competing state-of-the-art tools.

Yohannes T. Aklilu, Jianguo Ding

Power generation, distribution, transmission, and consumption face ongoing challenges such as smart grid management, control, and operation, resulting from high energy demand, the diversity of energy sources, and environmental or regulatory issues. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of blockchain-based solutions for smart grid management, control, and operations. We systematically summarize existing work on the use and implementation of blockchain technology in various smart grid domains. The paper compares related reviews and highlights the challenges in the management, control, and operation for a blockchain-based smart grid as well as future research directions in the five categories: collaboration among stakeholders; data analysis and data management; control of grid imbalances; decentralization of grid management and operations; and security and privacy. All these aspects have not been covered in previous reviews.

Davide Strepparava, Lorenzo Nespoli, Evgenia Kapassa, Marios Touloupou · 6 authors

The adoption of blockchain technology is emerging as a promising approach in managing decentralized local energy markets (LEM). In this study we analyze the issues related to the deployment of a blockchain-based LEM on devices as much as possible similar to modern smart meters. The presented LEM is based on an automated market-making mechanism. Buying and selling prices are dynamically determined by the amount of energy consumed and produced within a local energy community. We implemented the market in a blockchain application based on the Cosmos framework, which was deployed on embedded devices in a test pilot consisting of 18 residential buildings in Southern Switzerland. The sustainability of the application was investigated by analyzing the resources required by the blockchain to operate. The obtained results show how the developed application uses a small part of the resources of the embedded devices, approximately 100 MB for the memory usage and about 4% as regards the CPU. Thus, while the application deployment on smart meters is still troublesome, especially for memory requirements, the deployment at the data concentrator level is reasonable and feasible. Finally, we propose possible improvements and extensions that can be implemented in future versions of the presented solution.

Kathy Nguyen, Shantanu Pal, Zahra Jadidi, Ali Dorri · 5 authors

In recent years Industrial Control Systems (ICS) have been targeted increasingly by sophisticated cyberattacks. Improving ICS security has drawn significant attention in the literature that emphasises the importance of Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) sharing in accelerating detection, mitigation, and prevention of cyberattacks. However, organisations are reluctant to exchange CTI due to fear of exposure, reputational damage, and lack of incentives. Furthermore, there has been limited discussion about the factors influencing participation in sharing CTI about ICS. The existing CTI-sharing platforms rely on centralised trusted architectures that suffer from a single point of failure and risk companies' privacy as the central node maintains CTI details. In this paper, we address the needs of organisations involved in the management and protection of ICS and present a novel framework that facilitates secure, private, and incentivised exchange of CTI related to ICS using blockchain. We propose a new blockchain-enabled framework that facilitates the secure dissemination of CTI data among multiple stakeholders in ICS. We provide the framework design, technical development and evaluate the framework's feasibility in a real-world application environment using practical use-case scenarios. Our proposed design shows a more practical and efficient framework for a CTI sharing network for ICS, including the bestowal and acknowledgment of data privacy, trust barriers, and security issues ingrained in this domain.

Manuel Casquiço, Bruno Mataloto, João C. Ferreira, Vítor Monteiro · 6 authors

The decentralization in the electrical power grids has gained increasing importance, especially in the last two decades, since transmission system operators (TSO), distribution system operators (DSO) and consumers are more aware of energy efficiency and energy sustainability issues. Therefore, globally, due to the introduction of energy production technologies near the consumers, in residential and industrial sectors, new scenarios of distributed energy resources (DER) are emerging. In order to guarantee an adequate power management in the electrical power grids, incorporating producers, consumers and producers-consumers (prosumers) together, it is important to adopt intelligent systems and platforms that allow the provision of information on energy consumption and production in real time, as well as for obtaining a fair price for the sale and purchase of energy. In this paper, we analyze the literature to identify the appropriate solutions to implement a decentralized electrical power grid based on sensors, blockchain and smart contracts, evaluating the current state of the art and pilot projects already in place. We also discuss a proposal for a power grid model, with renewable energy production, combining Internet of Things, blockchain and smart contracts.

Chaïmaa Benabbou, Önder Gürcan

Smart contracts are programs stored on a blockchain that run when predetermined conditions are met. However, designing and implementing a smart contract is not trivial since upon deployment on a blockchain, it is no longer possible to modify it (neither for improving nor for bug fixing). It is only possible by deploying a new version of the smart contract which is costly (deployment cost for the new contract and destruction cost for the old contract). To this end, there are many solutions for testing the smart contracts before their deployment. Since realizing bug-free smart contracts increase the reliability, as well as reduce the cost, testing is an essential activity. In this paper, we group the existing solutions that attempt to tackle smart contract testing into following categories: public test networks, security analysis tools, blockchain emulators and blockchain simulators. Then, we analyze these solutions, categorize them and show what their pros and cons are.

Xiong Yang, Yuling Chen, Xiaobin Qian, Tao Li · 5 authors

The distributed deployment of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) makes the network more convenient, but it also causes more hidden security hazards that are difficult to be solved. For example, the unprotected deployment of sensors makes distributed anomaly detection systems for WSNs more vulnerable to internal attacks, and the limited computing resources of WSNs hinder the construction of a trusted environment. In recent years, the widely observed blockchain technology has shown the potential to strengthen the security of the Internet of Things. Therefore, we propose a blockchain-based ensemble anomaly detection (BCEAD), which stores the model of a typical anomaly detection algorithm (isolated forest) in the blockchain for distributed anomaly detection in WSNs. By constructing a suitable block structure and consensus mechanism, the global model for detection can iteratively update to enhance detection performance. Moreover, the blockchain guarantees the trust environment of the network, making the detection algorithm resistant to internal attacks. Finally, compared with similar schemes, in terms of performance, cost, etc., the results prove that BCEAD performs better.

Ao Xiong, Hongkang Tian, Wenchen He, Jie Zhang · 9 authors

This paper proposes a smart grid distributed security architecture based on blockchain technology and SDN cluster structure, referred to as ClusterBlock model, which combines the advantages of two emerging technologies, blockchain and SDN. The blockchain technology allows for distributed peer-to-peer networks, where the network can ensure the trusted interaction of untrusted nodes in the network. At the same time, this article adopts the design of an SDN controller distributed cluster to avoid single point of failure and balance the load between equipment and the controller. A cluster head was selected in each SDN cluster, and it was used as a blockchain node to construct an SDN cluster head blockchain. By combining blockchain technology, the security and privacy of the SDN communication network can be enhanced. At the same time, this paper designs a distributed control strategy and network attack detection algorithm based on blockchain consensus and introduces the Jaccard similarity coefficient to detect the network attacks. Finally, this paper evaluates the ClusterBlock model and the existing model based on the OpenFlow protocol through simulation experiments and compares the security performance. The evaluation results show that the ClusterBlock model has more stable bandwidth and stronger security performance in the face of DDoS attacks of the same scale.

Rasel Mahmud, Gab‐Su Seo

This paper proposes a distributed control method based on a consensus algorithm for distributed energy resources (DERs) using blockchain as a secure communication medium for cyber resilience. Each DER communicates with a local blockchain server that is maintained by the distributed ledger technology to allow for securely sharing local measurements among neighbouring assets to achieve the global control objectives, i.e., voltage and frequency regulation as well as accurate power sharing among the DERs, including collective grid-forming capability. To prove that the distributed control can retain system stability under a blockchain-induced variable communication delay, Lyapunov function-based stability analysis is carried out. This paper demonstrates the concept on an 11-bus test case developed in MATLAB Simulink, which has been modified from the IEEE 9-bus test case, to study dynamic operations of the five inverter-based DERs working with a blockchain-induced variable delay. The results validate the superior performance of the proposed control method, compared to heavily compromised operations of the other test cases without the security measure, affected by heavy communication delays and communication interruptions.

Yue Wu, Junxiang Li, Jin Gao

Blockchain technology provides a comprehensive solution to user access and energy trading for distributed energy Internet. Achieving market-based pricing, increasing the earnings of energy suppliers, attracting foreign capital and facilitating the upgrade of solar and wind energy are pressing issues. Drawing on the practices of centralised exchanges and blockchain cryptocurrency, the author designed the Cryptocurrency Energy Trading Platform (CETP), dividing the permissioned blockchain into the Energy Blockchain Platform (EBP) and the Energy Cryptocurrency Exchange (ECE). The frequently used real-time bidding scenario and the seldom-used power-using scenario are separated from each other. A market welfare model for real-time bidding is established and verified. With Energy Blockchain Cryptocurrency (EBC) as the trading medium, the platform allows external bidders to get involved in the bidding and transactions, which not only attracts the social capital to be used in the development of energy Internet but also helps stabilise the energy market prices, thus, advancing the energy Internet.

Henry Vargas, Carlos Lozano-Garzón, Germán A. Montoya, Yezid Donoso

Internet of Things (IoT) networks have been integrated into industrial infrastructure schemes, positioning themselves as devices that communicate highly classified information for the most critical companies of world nations. Currently, and in order to look for alternatives to mitigate this risk, solutions based on Blockchain algorithms and Machine Learning techniques have been implemented separately with the aim of mitigating potential threats in IIoT networks. In this paper, we sought to integrate the previous solutions to create an integral protection mechanism for IoT device networks, which would allow the identification of threats, activate secure information transfer mechanisms, and it would be adapted to the computational capabilities of industrial IoT. The proposed solution achieved the proposed objectives and is presented as a viable mechanism for detecting and containing intruders in an IoT network. In some cases, it overcomes traditional detection mechanisms such as an IDS.

Sri Nikhil Gupta Gourisetti, Ümit Cali, Kim‐Kwang Raymond Choo, Elizabeth Escobar · 12 authors

The global trend toward integration of distributed energy resources is opening doors to advanced, complex, and distributed marketplaces. Such advanced ecosystems, where utility-owned and non utility-owned assets can contribute toward grid operations, generally require distributed communication and grid architectures. We posit the potential of using Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLTs) in supporting such applications, although their full potential has not been fully used, for example in designing long-term scalable solutions in operational technology applications. This is partly due to the lack of standardization across and between different DLTs, as well as other supporting building blocks (e.g., communication protocols). This paper attempts to address this gap by proposing a DLT cybersecurity stack specifically designed for researchers, DLT technology developers, and end users (such as utilities). The DLT cybersecurity stack has been notionally mapped to related cybersecurity components, namely the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model, the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) suite, and existing Smart Grid architecture frameworks. In addition, the paper discusses several cybersecurity implications, and demonstrates the potential uses of the DLT cybersecurity stack through multiple power and energy use cases. It is important to note that the stack can be also applied to the DLT use cases that are outside the power and energy domain. This work was performed by the Cybersecurity Task Force under the IEEE P2418.5 Blockchain for Energy Standard working group that part of the IEEE Power and Energy Society’s Smart Buildings, Loads, and Customer Systems (SBLC) technical committee.

Do Hai Son, Tran Thi Thuy Quynh, Tran Viet Khoa, Dinh Thai Hoang · 9 authors

A smart grid is an important application in Industry 4.0 with a lot of new technologies and equipment working together. Hence, sensitive data stored in the smart grid is vulnerable to malicious modification and theft. This paper proposes a framework to build a smart grid based on a highly effective private Ethereum network. Our framework provides a real smart grid that includes modern hardware and a smart contract to secure data in the blockchain network. To obtain high throughput but a low uncle rate, the difficulty calculation method used in the mining process of the Ethereum consensus mechanism is modified to adapt to the practical smart grid setup. The performance in terms of throughput and latency are evaluated by simulation and verified by the real smart grid setup. The enhanced private Ethereum-based smart grid has significantly better performance than the public one. Moreover, this framework can be applied to any system used to store data in the Ethereum network.

Charithri Yapa, Chamitha de Alwis, Madhusanka Liyanage, Janaka Ekanayake

Smart Grid 2.0 is envisaged to automate the operations of the intelligent electricity grid. Blockchain and smart contracts are integrated to facilitate the transformation from DSO-centric operations to consumer-oriented, distributed electricity grid management. The envisaged smart grids, integrated with blockchain would provoke challenges, which would hinder the maximum utilization of Distribute Energy Resources (DERs). This comprehensive review aims at analyzing the applicability of blockchain technology in Smart Grid 2.0, which would facilitate a seamless decentralization process. Further, the paper elaborates the blockchain-based applications of future smart grid operations and the role of blockchain in each scenario. The paper further provides a concise analysis on the blockchain integration challenges, thereby ensure secure and scalable, decentralized operations of future, autonomous electricity networks.

Abdullah Ayub Khan, Asif Ali Laghari, Desheng Liu, Aftab Ahmed Shaikh · 7 authors

A distributed power system operation and control node privacy and security are attractive research questions that deliver electrical energy systems to the participating stakeholders without being physically connected to the grid system. The increased use of renewable energy in the power grid environment creates serious issues, for example, connectivity, transmission, distribution, control, balancing, and monitoring volatility on both sides. This poses extreme challenges to tackle the entire bidirectional power flow throughout the system. To build distributed monitoring and a secure control operation of node transactions in the real-time system that can manage and execute power exchanging and utilizing, balancing, and maintaining energy power failure. This paper proposed a blockchain Hyperledger Sawtooth enabling a novel and secure distributed energy transmission node in the EPS-ledger network architecture with a robust renewable power infiltration. The paper focuses on a cyber-physical power grid control and monitoring system of renewable energy and protects this distributed network transaction on the blockchain and stores a transparent digital ledger of power. The Hyperledger Sawtooth-enabled architecture allows stakeholders to exchange information related to power operations and control monitoring in a private ledger network architecture and investigate the different activities, preserved in the interplanetary file systems. Furthermore, we design, create, and deploy digital contracts of the cyber–physical energy monitoring system, which allows interaction between participating stakeholders and registration and presents the overall working operations of the proposed architecture through a sequence diagram. The proposed solution delivers integrity, confidentiality, transparency, availability, and control access of the distribution of the power system and maintains an immutable operations and control monitoring ledger by secure blockchain technology.

Abdullah Musaed Alkhiari, Shailendra Mishra, Mohammed Alshehri

Smart Grid is a power grid that improves flexibility, reliability, and efficiency through smart meters. Due to extensive data exchange over the Internet, the smart grid faces many security challenges that have led to data loss, data compromise, and high power consumption. Moreover, the lack of hardware protection and physical attacks reduce the overall performance of the smart grid network. We proposed the BLIDSE model (Blockchain-based secure quantum key distribution and Intrusion Detection System in Edge Enables Smart Grid Network) to address these issues. The proposed model includes five phases: The first phase is blockchain-based secure user authentication, where all smart meters are first registered in the blockchain, and then the blockchain generates a secret key. The blockchain verifies the user ID and the secret key during authentication matches the one authorized to access the network. The secret key is shared during transmission through secure quantum key distribution (SQKD). The second phase is the lightweight data encryption, for which we use a lightweight symmetric encryption algorithm, named Camellia. The third phase is the multi-constraint-based edge selection; the data are transmitted to the control center through the edge server, which is also authenticated by blockchain to enhance the security during the data transmission. We proposed a perfect matching algorithm for selecting the optimal edge. The fourth phase is a dual intrusion detection system which acts as a firewall used to drop irrelevant packets, and data packets are classified into normal, physical errors and attacks, which is done by Double Deep Q Network (DDQN). The last phase is optimal user privacy management. In this phase, smart meter updates and revocations are done, for which we proposed Forensic based Investigation Optimization (FBI), which improves the security of the smart grid network. The simulation is performed using network simulator NS3.26, which evaluates the performance in terms of computational complexity, accuracy, false detection, and false alarm rate. The proposed BLIDSE model effectively mitigates cyber-attacks, thereby contributing to improved security in the network.

Oliver Dzobo, Bessie Malila, Lindokhuhle Sithole

Abstract The integration of distributed renewable energy sources into the conventional power grid has become a hot research topic, all part of attempts to reduce greenhouse gas emission. There are many distributed renewable energy sources available and the network participants in energy delivery have also increased. This makes the management of the new power grid with integrated distributed renewable energy sources extremely complex. Applying the technical advantages of blockchain technology to this complex system to manage peer-to-peer energy sharing, transmission, data storage and build smart contracts between network participants can develop an optimal consensus mechanism within the new power grid. This paper proposes a new framework for the application of blockchain in a decentralised energy network. The microgrid is assumed to be private and managed by local prosumers. An overview description of the proposed model and a case study are presented in the paper.

Maryam Pahlevan, Artemis Voulkidis, Terpsichori-Helen Velivassaki

The energy sector has been, in recent years, the target of sophisticated cyberattacks. Although the importance of collaborative cyber-security consciousness, expressed as extensive cyber threat intelligence sharing, is undoubted, the standardization of the means of exchanging cyber threat information efficiently and securely has been inadequately addressed and is mostly expressed by the emergence of the Trusted Automated eXchange of Indicator Information (TAXIITM) protocol which faces major deficiencies when it comes to data integrity assurance and suitability for event-driven architectures. This paper presents a novel approach enabling secure and real-time exchange of cyber threat information, by extending the technological capacity of the TAXII framework and addressing its deficiencies through the integration of Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT) and a generalized publish-subscribe middleware. The applicability of the proposed solution has been validated in several use cases addressing the real needs of Electrical Power and Energy Systems.